Free email web provider (not Gmail)

**gipsyshadow** · June 7th, 2024

I had been experiencing issues with my Gmail and I'm evaluating to get a new email address with another provider.
My Gmail issues mostly deals with its unreliability about receiving email notifications from some domains, eg. some forums. Sometimes I receive notifications only for the first times then they just stop, I mean Gmail doesn't put them in Spam, they just don't come in! It's like Gmail chose what domains are good and what are bad and for me it's a pain to experience this kind of "artificial intelligence"! Moreover recently I've searched an old email I'm sure I received years ago and didn't erase but I couldn't find anymore!
Anyway I've got another email address with a local provider I opened about 20 years ago and I use it whenever Gmail fails due to this issue but this other provider's got another big problem: it gets out of work for 3-7 days a couple of times per year because its server has become quite unstable in the last 3 years!

So definitely I need a desktop web provider that allows emails to come in from every domain and I need it relies on a stable server because I must receive emails for my job too. It must be free. I don't need anything else.

currentshaft · June 7th, 2024

Gmail is "free" because you pay for it tenfold with your personal data.

There are lots of great mail services out there, but none are truly free. Since email is important to you, consider paying money for it.

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/email has several decent recommendations.

**gipsyshadow** · June 7th, 2024

I see and I agree with you but my main concern about Gmail deals with that issue I told in my 1st post not with privacy, I know it works like a such "data-miner".
That said I've just pointed my attention to proton and tuta providers and I'd like to ask some questions about both them:
- Must I use a 2nd authorization factor to view my emails other than the password I use to access my account with? If yes, do I need an app for smartphone to get this sort of token? (Maybe you won't believe me but I don't own anyone!).
- Have you ever got troubles with income emails with potentially dangerous attachments (eg. exe)? Eg. proton/tuta doesn't allow you to download them.
- Have you ever experienced cases of never received income emails from certain domains, like my issue with Gmail I wrote about at my 1st post?
- Have you ever experienced someone who never received your proton/tuta emails or someone whose provider put your proton/tuta emails in his/her spam?
- (Maybe silly, maybe not!) I saw I can choose between @proton.me and @protonmail.com free domains; basing on your personal experience what's the easiest one to understand by people when you say it by your voice at the first time? I'd like to avoid both to spell and to repeat again and again my address because people don't understand this "nuclear" name

currentshaft · June 7th, 2024

I don't use Proton nor Tuta, so I can't answer those questions. In general, you do not need an app to get time-based OTP tokens for MFA. There are software solutions you can run locally on your computer, including in some password managers, to manage that credential.

I've not had email issues like you describe, sorry. But in general, I have found other email providers do not treat me like an idiot in the way Gmail does.

As for choosing an email domain, I would recommend instead purchasing your own name (gipsyshadow.net or whatever) and setting up email to that. This way, you can easily switch providers while keeping the same address.

Hope this helps.